The girls laughed, and hearing Sylvy call her, Bubbles went out.
"Isn't she funny?" said Florence. "I never could have made up a story like that, could you, Dimple?"
"No," said Dimple, "she tells me the funniest ones sometimes, so mixed up, and I laugh till I can scarcely speak, and she sings the most absurd songs; she gets the words all twisted, she has no idea what they mean. Oh! Florence, I do believe there is a bat in the hall. I hope to goodness it won't come in here."
Florence screamed and hid her head under the piano, while Dimple took refuge in the same place, and called loudly for Bubbles, who came running in with Sylvy after her.
"What's de matter? Where are yuh?" they cried.
"Oh, a bat! a bat!" shrieked Florence, as the creature came swooping in from the hall, beating its wings against the wall.
Sylvy, armed with a broom, and Bubbles, with a duster, soon put an end to the poor bat, and the girls came out from their hiding-place.
"I suppose it is silly to be afraid of them, but they nearly frighten me to death," said Dimple.
"So they do me," Florence said, "and spiders too. Ugh! it makes cold chills run down my back to think of one; let's go to bed, Dimple. We can undress anyhow, and sit in our nightgowns and talk, if we want to."
This Dimple agreed to, and they went upstairs to their rooms to find on the bureau two little white paper packages addressed to "Miss Florence Graham," and "Miss Eleanor Dallas."